第 27 节
作者:猜火车      更新:2021-02-20 17:38      字数:2821
  regards Women and as regards the Isosceles or Lower Classes。 Personally;
  he now inclines to the opinion of the Sphere (see page 86) that the Straight
  Lines are in many important respects superior to the Circles。 But; writing
  as   a   Historian;   he   has   identified   himself   (perhaps   too   closely)   with   the
  views generally adopted by Flatland; and (as he has been informed) even
  by   Spaceland;   Historians;   in   whose   pages   (until   very   recent   times)   the
  destinies   of   Women   and   of   the   masses   of   mankind   have   seldom   been
  deemed worthy of mention and never of careful consideration。
  In a still more obscure passage he now desires to disavow the Circular
  or aristocratic tendencies with which some critics have naturally credited
  him。    While     doing    justice   to  the   intellectual   power     with   which     a  few
  Circles     have    for   many     generations     maintained       their  supremacy       over
  immense   multitudes   of   their   countrymen;   he   believes   that   the   facts   of
  Flatland;   speaking   for   themselves   without   comment   on   his   part;   declare
  that    Revolutions      cannot    always     be   suppressed     by   slaughter;     and   that
  Nature; in sentencing the Circles to infecundity; has condemned them to
  ultimate failure〃and herein;〃 he says; 〃I see a fulfilment of the great Law
  of all worlds; that while the wisdom of Man thinks it is working one thing;
  the wisdom of Nature constrains it to work another; and quite a different
  and far better thing。〃 For the rest; he begs his readers not to suppose that
  every minute detail in the daily life of Flatland must needs correspond to
  some other detail in Spaceland; and yet he hopes that; taken as a whole;
  his work may prove suggestive as well as amusing; to those Spacelanders
  of   moderate   and   modest   minds   whospeaking   of   that   which   is   of   the
  highest importance; but lies beyond experiencedecline to say on the one
  hand;   〃This   can   never   be;〃   and   on   the   other   hand;   〃It   must   needs   be
  precisely thus; and we know all about it。〃
  93
  … Page 94…
  Flatland
  Footnote 1。 The Author desires me to add; that the misconceptions of
  some of his critics on this matter has induced him to insert (on pp。 74 and
  92) in his dialogue with the Sphere; certain remarks which have a bearing
  on   the   point   in   question   and   which   he   had   previously   omitted   as   being
  tedious and unnecessary。
  94